I hope for the best for Van's Aircraft. I worked on them almost exclusively for about 15 years.

A girl I went to high school with back in the early 1970s built a monoplane. Did most of the work herself, despite being small and skinny.

One of our teachers lived in a cabin east of Black Forest (Colorado) and she would buzz his place at extremely low altitude just for fun.

She ended up joining the Air Force and becoming a lesbian.

Be forewarned, OP.

Just getting the parts in order...

I say 10 Year project.

Very cool OP. I've wanted to build my own plane for a very long time. I fix them for other people instead.

A friend of mine work for a place that makes custom instrument panels for planes like that.

My RV8 was only 4 years and a couple months.

Steinair?

That was going to be my guess also.

As a former A&P, this thread has my interest.

Yup.

Very cool! I've built a few cars from the nut and bolt level and always wanted to do a plane, but when any of the cars break down I suddenly question that idea.

To answer a few questions:
The Jeep is considered done. The wheel is off because I’m rebuilding my fathers axels and I couldn’t remember if the rotor went on the front or back of the hub for a disc brake conversion. So I was using mine as a guide.

The boat is just a cheapie kayak from Dicks before we hated them.

There are laser cut parts in the kits. The previous owner already identified them and submitted the form to get the critical ones replaced. We’ll have to contact vans for an owner swap of the SN and hopefully they can get shipped straight to me.

I have most if not all of the tools, there was a guy in Albuquerque that was selling his whole cleaveland tools kit from when he abandoned his RV14 build. I’ll certainly need more clecos when it comes to wing time.

I’ve already been lurking on the vans airforce forum (got the tools and airframe from their classifieds)

A few pics of the jeep…
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It might be easier to find help if we knew where you lived.

I'd have to assume that he's already a lesbian, in fact aren't most of us lesbians?

I love me some women.

Op I have a question about your last picture. What in the world is that handle for?

Maybe it's a step of some sort?

nice little off-roader.

It’s a decent grab handle for the passenger. Without it, there’s really just the windshield frame which really shouldn’t be pulled on.

I’m “hoping” this project will take 3 years.
I already have a few parts I think I need to swap out, the cowling is for a lycoming io 390. I’m planning on a 360 most likely so I’m not sure if I’ll need a different cowling. There are so many different variants of these engines it’s hard to keep track. But that’s a next year problem at best.
Then the question of going with a brand new motor or find a decent overhauled one.

For avionics I’m planning on a single screen dynon setup to start with and expand down the road as I get my instrument.

A bigger work shop would be nice, but I’m pretty sure I can do everything up to hanging the engine in the garage.

Main construction is planned to start after the new year.
Up until then there’s organizing parts, deciding to fully prime, not prime or just prime between the mating surfaces.
Building some practice kits will happen in that time too.

Before all of this I need to finish my fathers cj3a axels. Lol

Go for it OP !!!!

I'm the first customer that Don at 92ND West Aviation had for the Pitts Model 12 since he bought the operation from the Kimballs here in Zellwood, Fl. I have all the big parts on hand but I'm waiting on Don to finish fabricating up the landing gear and all the internal fuselage parts. Robbie Grove is completely out of the gear business from what I understand.

Had Don had the parts I'd have the plane done in a year. I'm retired and single.

I moved my whole project to south Florida so I can hopefully get the wings finished and maybe painted this winter.
Yep, my living room is my build center after the hurricane last year. I have zero furniture so...why not ????







Stay busy and it'll get done !!!! My end goal....





ETA...It's been rigged once to make sure all the wires fit. I was within the width of the plumb bob string on all my measurements...

Being from New Mexico I would priming is not an issue. There are thousands of airplanes built since the beginning of aviation with no internal primer and they are just fine. If you lived near the coast then yes, prime all the things.

Wow, a 390 in a 6. Van didn’t even want 200hp 360’s in the 6.

3 years?

Doable but you’ll be very busy.

My dad built a Sonex.  Lots of work… but there wasn’t much laser cut anything.

A friend of mine started an RV7, did the tail, then realized that life wasn’t going to permit him to finish it so he sold the wing kit and tail kit.

My uncle has an RV8, I have some time in it.  They’re fine flying aircraft, aerobatic but docile when you need them to be.

Wow!    I haven't followed any Van's stuff for a few years.   I sure hope Van's pulls through this.   They are, and have long been, a shining beacon in an Experimental world filled with dashed hopes and shattered dreams like the BD-5, Viper jet, Terrafugia, Blue Mountain Avionics, and many, many others.    They have long held a reputation for excellence, both in their kits and in their support and acceptance, and that's why they are the #1 Experimental kit plane manufacturer.

I was talking about the one to the left under the door.

FYI - my cleco count (after going back for more a couple times) was 350 silver, 250 copper.   Something like this is ideal for holding them:

Kit Fox all the things......

That would be my choice if I was building, but they are slow and not aerobatic.  If you’re looking to go somewhere, the RV is a better choice.

I am working on an rv10

Nice. What part of the state?

for an airplane, wood is superior to almost everything if kept in the hangar

No it isn't.

Cool. How far along are you?

I just finished working on a 10. Hopefully the customer picks it up tomorrow.

In 5ish years I’ll be leaving NM. Don’t quite know where I’ll end up. Could be in New England, could be KS, who knows. Hence my dilemma.

I was going with a 180hp 360. But there are lots of guys who have been putting 200-210hp engines in their 7’s and 14’s.  Course the 14 is slightly larger cabin wise but not by much.

It’s nice to see so many other arfcommers working on planes! There should be a sub forum for us!

I would love a kitfox if I just wanted to putt around the local area or do a bunch of back country stuff, but I want to be able to do cross countries upside down in a decent amount of time.

A radial kit fox would be pretty cool.

The RV7 is structurally stronger to handle the 200hp motor. The IO390 is the recommended motor for the RV14. I did work on an RV6 that had a IO540 in it. That airplane was far from stock though. It called The Super Six Rocket.

I'm not sure that's correct.

You have taken the first and most important step... You created a thread about it here.

And that means you can't back out now, you have to go through with this and make reasonable progress. No procrastinating, no giving up, your ARFCOM reputation is on the line.

Good luck, we're all counting on you.

Ah, the good old days decades ago...

I want one of those in the worst way.  I need to see how well I fit in one.


I have Fly Baby plans in my desk, good grief wood has gotten expensive.

At last check, we have one.

where in NM? im up in NE corner of colorado, i can fly down adn shoot rivets with ya, if you provied the flying plane???!

cheyenne or.....?

God I’m jealous. Of the Jeep and the wherewithal to build an airplane. I know it’s not realistic for me to build an RV but I keep thinking about buying a Citabria. I gave a lot of instruction in Citabria and Decathlon a few decades back. I’d love to spend some time in RVs.

Well,

If you're near ABQ and need a little help, drop me an email.  I have 30 years of aircraft structural repair and about $100,000 in associated tools.   Currently rebuilding a bad wreck to fly again.   I generally don't get involved in these type projects because my 30 years usually doesn't mean squat to newby builders that watched a few videos on the internet.   Beware the EAA.  Lots of good intentions but it is often the blind leading the blind.  Completing a single homebuilt doesn't make anyone an expert in anything regarding aircraft construction.  

I know unsolicited advice is rarely appreciated, but here's some anyway.   Stick to the factory plan.   I cringe when I hear homebuilders talk about the modifications they are doing to various systems without consulting experts first.   They are Darwin's choice to have the words "burned beyond recognition" in their obituary.  There are a lot of hack A&P aircraft mechanics out there.   Half my work is fixing their screw ups and illegal repairs.   Don't be impressed with that certification.  If you bring in a ringer to help on the build, keep your BS detector on and ask lots of questions.  If he only has basic sheet metal tools, he is probably not going to be much more help than the wife or kids.   And if he has mainly worked on large jets, he will be damn near useless on your project.  Pay accordingly.

Good Luck.

This is the sort of advice I’d look for if I was looking to build an airplane.


Not to ‘thread slide’ but why not jet mechanics?  Building small GA planes not being their specialty or what? My favorite Falcon shop was tiny. I wish I could find a small Bombardier shop full of old guys who know Lear 45s inside and out.  Couple guys at my Falcon shop did the 731 conversion 30 years back. They know that airplane. If I was building an RV I’d want a shop nearby that knows that airplane.

I remember watching a TV series, maybe on PBS, where a guy started building a kit plane. It went downhill fast. The fiberglass looked like shit and he eventually put on a Jason mask and took a chainsaw to the kit.

I would have fun building one. Like I need another hobby.

Edit- just looked at kits. Thank christ they are expensive enough to not buy on a whim.

I can't speak for glasswork on planes,.but I have seen a lot on boats.  Good grief.  

I think Walmart and Pep Boys should be banned from selling fiberglass and resin.

The small amount of fiberglass work that will be needed scares me. More than cutting the canopy in half.

In my experience, the larger business jets, small commuter airliners and everything bigger are built like tanks compared to small single engine GA aircraft.  A guy that has done structural repairs to these bigger aircraft will probably mangle a homebuilt even with the best intentions.   You can grab a 4x riveting hammer and go to town on a Falcon jet, any model.   Try that with a Cessna 172 or similar aircraft and you'll crush the structure.   I've actually seen the result of this.   A local guy bought a wrecked 172 from the insurance company, hired an ex-airline mechanic, and ended up with a garage full of scrap aircraft parts.    I have enlightened a few newby flight instructors with my current projects.   I ask them to guess the weight of a separated wing or fuselage, then have them pick them up.   They are amazed at how light they are, and realize how easily they will crumple into a ball during a major accident.   Little airplanes take a fair bit of finesse, skills, knowledge and the right tools to rebuild them correctly.

I saw a few such shows when I was a kid on the Discovery Wings Channel.

In every one they handled construction with way more professionalism than anything I could ever imagine being able to pull off. And they brought in outside assistance when it was time to do things like wire harnesses and paint.

Just remember, your life depends on every nut, bolt and rivet going in as designed. If something doesnt feel right, stop and have it evaluated!

You'd be surprised at how many kits are bought "on a whim", especially when you can buy one sub-assembly at a time.

I have been asked to look over a number of homebuilts under construction.   The quality of workmanship was mostly appalling.   But, these guys had been successful in life and felt they were so smart they couldn't possibly fail at building an aircraft, so they bought a kit same as buying another car.  They ignored my constructive criticisms, and I was trying to be super polite with them.   I once wrote a three page letter detailing all of the obvious problems with a half-done homebuilt project a friend had purchased.   Since he was a friend, and not wanting him to burn up in it, I was blunt and went into great detail.   I ended with the words "if you try to fly this aircraft, you're going to die."   Didn't stop him from wasting hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars before he finally scrapped it.   I wasn't about to touch that disaster.  

I am amazed at the shortcuts and substitutions these guys take.   One guy picked up .100 sheets of phenolic for free at work and decided to use them instead of dimpling .019 sheet aluminum.   He tried to countersink the 100* rivet holes with a 90* drill bit.   Another guy built a two seater and decided he could double his range by replacing the 2nd seat with a 30 gallon plastic soap barrel and plumb it into the fuel system using garden hose and Ace Hardware valves.   I asked him what happens when he has a hard landing and that old dry rotted barrel cracks and pours avgas down onto the super hot exhaust directly underneath him.   He just gave me a blank stare.   I wished he was with me when I watched, up close, a "Grizzly" homebuilt crash land at ABQ and the pilot struggle to get out but was burned to death. It was a fibreglas aircraft and burned hot and fast.   By the time the crash crews got their shit together and drove the three miles to the crash site, the only things left were the engine, some steel and charred meat.

Riveting is the area where most shortcuts take place, using junk pop rivets from the hardware store, or any solid rivets they can get cheaply, shear strength be damned.   Their installation of solids gives one perfect examples of every riveting mistake known to mankind.   It ain't easy to begin with, and even though many kit manufacturers have gone to great lengths to make it easier, builders seem to think they are going to do great riveting from day one.   I suggest they rivet up a toolbox, a doghouse, anything, to get some experience before tackling the airframe.   And the tool suppliers are not helping by selling that crappy hand squeezer as God's gift to homebuilders.    Bucking bars and a riveting hammer will do a better job in many places.

When I do a large structural repair, word gets around and I get lots of visitors, homebuilders and potential builders, curious to see an aircraft opened up and looking for advice.  They are blown away by the vast array of tools I'm using at that moment.   5-10 pneumatic squeezers, 15+ hand squeezers, 30-50 bucking bars, and lots of home-made tools.   I'm happy to talk with them, but I've had some tell me I don't need that many tools to do the job.  I swear, some of these guys would buy a do-it-yourself brain surgery kit.   A good friend, Gene M, had a shop with lots of homebuilders on the field that constant pestered him for free advice and free hardware.  His favorite phrase was "Homebuilders are the only people on the planet that can screw up an anvil".

I know there have been some really nice homebuilts completed and it is not impossible to build one, but my experiences with these builders has left me picking my jaw up off the floor numerous times.   I am absolutely convinced that many of these aircraft/car/boat projects are started mainly as an excuse to get away from the wife for a while, with no serious intention of ever completing them.  Oshkosh is a great place to see many beautiful homebuilts.  The flip side is the hundreds or thousands of homebuilt projects collecting dust in garages and hangars that will never be finished, because the owner lost interest, ran into financial hardship, had medical problems, realized he was not skilled enough, or screwed up a big assembly and refuses to redo it.  I could probably find 20 or more of them at my local fields if I wanted to.

I have all the Tony Bingelis books and lots of other homebuilt data.   I am not impressed with most of it.  These authors try to reduce the build process down to something as simple as building a go cart, giving builders a false sense of hope.   Some of the videos on youtube are okay, but I find many of them are the blind leading the blind.

Well, now that I have royally pissed off every homebuilder on arfcom, I'll say goodnite.

I know of an RV7 build going on since about 1999.  Still in various stages of production.

He ended up buying a plane.

It's obviously doable but takes a lot of dedication.

Be prepared to make many small brackets from raw stock, OP.
I almost bought an RV-9, and even have the plans, but I went with a Sling2.
Everything on the Sling is CNC'ed, all of the small brackets are made, and if the parts don't match up, you're assembling it wrong.
I took delivery of my kit in late April of 2023, and started building in early May.
I have the empennage and wings complete, and am working on the rear fuselage now.  I should have that done in about two weeks.
I schedule tech counselor visits before I close up anything, and have EAA Chapter members come to check everything to possibly catch something I might have missed.  The more eyes that look at it, the better.
One of the reasons I liked the RVs, is that you can save a lot of money by purchasing a kit from someone who never started it or stopped part way.
The RVs are good planes, but it takes a lot of time to build one, and I'm not 30 years old anymore.
I'll probably have the Sling2 complete by this time next year, or close to that time frame.